Dictionary

maguey en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /məˈɡeɪ/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish maguey, from Taíno *mawei.

Meanings

1. Any of various large agaves of Mexico and the southern US, especially the American aloe, Agave americana.
   • Tequilla and mescal are similar, both liquors being distilled fom the maguey plant. 1899, Consular Reports: Commerce, manufactures, etc, page 375:
   • “Well: hardly,” said the Consul, softly as before, casting a suspicious eye for his part in the other direction at some maguey growing beyond the barranca, like a battalion moving up a slope under machine-gun fire. 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 138:
   • […]and they rode through strange forests of maguey—the aloe or century plant—with immense flowering stalks that rose forty feet into the desert air. 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
   • through black fields, where tlachiqueros brought sheepskins slung across their backs full of fresh maguey juice to be fermented, and campesinos in white lined the right-of-way 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 424:

Forms

Deriveds

maguey worm · Cebu maguey · red maguey worm · white maguey worm

Synonyms

agave · century plant · pita

Translations (8)

qu qara (North American agave) · ote uada (North American agave) · pl agawa amerykańska (North American agave) · es maguey (North American agave) · es pita (North American agave) · nci metl (North American agave) · ceb magay (North American agave) · gl agave (North American agave)